Featured image courtesy of Reuters
Just one stage of the 108th Tour de France remains. It’s the celebration, the curtain closer in Paris. The champagne bottles are about to be taken out of the ice buckets, uncorked and poured into glasses. Getting that photograph, it’s a stage alongside your mates before the intensity increases as the Champs-Élysées comes into view. Whoever wins the final sprint under the Arc de Triumphe’s shadow will be crowned in absolute glory, one man could yet break the all-time stage record. We know our overall winner is Tadej Pogačar, in fact everyone knew that by the Alps on Stage 8. 22-year-of-age, about to win back-to-back Tours, nobody could get close to him in the Pyrennes.
So before Paris, here are five talking points from Stages 16 to 20 summarising how the third and final week played out.
Absent Sagan didn’t dampen Bora one bit
After winning a stage plus the points jersey at the Giro, it’s hard to see what we expected of Peter Sagan at this Tour. The three-times world champion completed the full 21 stages in Italy, the aim to win an eighth green jersey with a stage victory along the way. That hasn’t happened. The unfortunate fall of Caleb Ewan on Stage 3 into Pontivy brought Sagan down in the process, the after effects the reason why the Slovakian had to abandon before Stage 12. An infection to a cut in his knee is an understandable reason to leave the race.
With Sagan gone, you’d wonder whether Bora-Hansgrohe would actually achieve anything at all, but instead the loss of your main man does give others unplanned opportunities. On the day Sagan left, Nils Politt took Stage 12 into Nîmes, the German’s first grand tour stage win. To make things better, the spirits of Bora-Hansgrohe were clear and evident after Politt’s success – Austrian climber Patrick Konrad claiming his first grand tour triumph. Stage 16 from Pas de la Case to Saint-Gaudens featuring the Col de Port and the infamous Col de Portet d’Aspet was perfect terrain for a breakaway. A slight uphill finish in Saint-Gaudens was suitable for a puncheur but in the end Konrad attacked on the Aspet to ride in solo. Showing aggression with both David Gaudu and an impressive Sonny Colbrelli chasing behind, he held both off arms aloft in the pouring rain.
Team losing their leaders has been a feature of this Tour, but re-thinking plans and taking opportunities when you least expect them. Bora-Hansgrohe have been one of these teams, losing Sagan, trying to keep Wilco Kelderman in the GC fight, but also making sure that others get a chance. A decent Tour for the German team, Nils Politt and Patrick Konrad providing something to shout about.
Pogačar packs a Pyrenean punch
Back-to-back summit finishes on Stages 17 and 18 atop the Col du Portet and Luz Ardiden, the high altitude settings at this year’s Tour was packed into the Pyrennes. A five minute advantage already, all Tadej Pogačar had to do in yellow was ride defensively, conservatively and hardly make a move. No chance! It keeps on being mentioned but needs repeating. UAE-Team Emirates are not the strongest team at this Tour, but as Pogačar has shown you don’t need on. Teammate Rafał Majka has become stronger at this Tour, the Pole playing ultimate super domestique with Stage 17 atop the Portet perfect evidence of that.
Attacking right at the foot of the climb showed so much confidence from Tadej Pogačar, going all out to destroy any rivals you have or in this case don’t have. Nobody has got close to the yellow jersey at this Tour, the stage win on top of the world at 2,215 metres above sea level, clenching the jersey with an iron grip, cycling has been utterly left speechless by how dominant this young kid has won the 2021 Tour.
If the Portet wasn’t enough, then think again! Luz Ardiden hadn’t featured at the Grand Boucle in exactly ten years, Spaniard Samuel Sánchez the last man to win atop the mountain. Keeping calm along an Ineos team trying their hardest to set up Richard Carapaz for a stage win, all Pogačar had to do was hang on without any need to attack. The pace set by Tao Geoghegan-Hart not fast enough, Majka again showing class to overtake and set the tempo, it was once again perfection by UAE-Team Emirates. Attacking once again to distance everyone else, Pogačar ruthless, Carapaz and Jonas Vingegaard fighting for crumbs, nothing has stopped the Slovenian in his tracks.
After so much talk about Pogačar never wearing yellow jersey via flat roads, mountains and sharp uphill inclines ever before, this Tour has been a breeze for the young man. His opposition wiped out after week one, the race for yellow sealed after Stage 8 in the Alps. But what is really impressive is the scale of his achievement. Not since the days of Eddy Merckx in 1972 have we seen the yellow jersey win back-to-back summit finishes at the Tour. Records are being broken. The final time trial on Stage 20 wasn’t a fourth stage win, but all in all winning a second consecutive Tour, both overall victories far from similar, is what the defending champion came to do.
No matter the terrain, this 22-year-old sensation is conquering everything thrown at him. The 108th Tour, Stages 17 and 18 featuring fearsome climbs in the Pyrennes, atop the Portet via the Peyresourde and Luz Ardiden via the Tourmalet – Tadej Pogačar has been unstoppable.
Mohorič doubles up among controversial headlines
If you didn’t know already cycling has a tainted past. Doping scandals damaged the sport so much that nobody could believe anything they were seeing. One American and others let everyone down, Lance Armstrong the cheat in chief with many foot soldiers up to no good over previous years.
Cycling has moved on, the sport cleaner than what is was before, but just when you think that past is behind us, something comes up out of the blue. News broke after Stage 17 with an announcement that rooms and the team bus of Team Bahrain-Victorious were searched but no arrests were made. French prosecutors have opened a preliminary investigation into doping allegations against the team, the prosecutor’s office in Marseille saying the investigation was into possible “acquisition, transport, possession, import of a prohibited substance or prohibited method for use by an athlete without medical justification”.
The International Testing Agency, responsible for anti-doping in cycling and other sports has been “in communication” with the French police and the “UCI (cycling’s govering body) informed accordingly”. Objects and information has been seized, nobody has been placed under investigation though Bahrain Victorious team doctor Marjan Korsic faces formal questioning at the end of the Tour de France.
Personal belongings of the riders searched, the Tour organiser Christian Prudhomme understandably angry, the question about whether Bahrain-Victorious have cheated at this Tour won’t be answered yet, but after this Tour the sport will be holding its breath.
All the doping headlines are a shame when you consider that Bahrain-Victorious have enjoyed a successful Tour despite the loss of their main general classification hope Jack Haig in a crash on Stage 3. Spaniard Pello Bilbao is set to finish ninth overall, Belgian Dylan Teuns has a stage win, Dutch climber Wout Poels won’t win the polka-dot jersey but has already looked good in the mountains, and then comes another Slovenian away from Tadej Pogačar who has scored two stages to add to his already brilliant palmares.
Matej Mohorič had Stage 7 in the bag already, so how about another? Stage 19 from Mourenx to Libourne was a long day at 207 km, ideal for a sprint but the breakaway had their fun instead. The fact remains that Mohorič is now firmly placed in the grand tour club for achieving stage wins at the Vuelta, Giro and now the Tour, but what many cannot understand is his stage celebration. Zipping his lips? That’s a celebration Lance Armstrong did himself 17 years ago.
Speaking after the stage: “From one point of view, it’s a good thing because there is still control in the peloton and they are checking all the teams. Of course, they didn’t find anything because we have nothing to hide. So from one point of view, it’s a good thing, but from another I’m a little bit disappointed with the system because it’s not a nice thing when the police walk into your room and starts just [searching] all your belongings even if you have nothing to hide – it feels a little bit weird. It never happened to me before”.
What you can understand from Matej Mohorič is a sense that he and his team-mates are being accused before something has even happened. We have no idea what will happen with the investigation. It’s easy for cycling fans to convict a rider before a verdict has even been declared. It’s cliché but Mohorič, his fellow riders and the team as a whole are innocent until proven guilty. Yet some are not convinced, guilty before innocence inevitable. If Bahrain-Victorious are found to have used banned substances with Mohorič and others eventually found out, then we can conclude that the zipping lips celebration was unwise.
For now, a third stage win for the team, Sonny Colbrelli still in with a chance for the sprint in Paris, questions will loom over the team but until they are answered nothing has changed.
Rider of the Tour has to be Wout Van Aert
You have to back to the era of Eddy Merckx himself since we’ve last seen a rider who can climb, time trial and sprint all the same time. The ultimate all-rounder, that was Merckx at his finest. A Belgian. A five-times Tour winner, 11 grand tours overall and a three-times world champion. It’s unlikely Wout van Aert will win the yellow jersey but a rainbow jersey isn’t out of the question.
For this Tour de France and this one alone, a glorious ascent up Mont Ventoux twice before dipping down into Malaucène on Stage 11 was a triumph in itself. The previous day in Valence, Wout Van Aert was sprinting! Is there anything the Belgian road champion cannot do?
The final time trial from Libourne to Saint-Émilion on Stage 20 had the Belgian’s name all over it. His Tour de France debut in 2019 saw a first-ever stage win but you’ll remember the Stage 13 time trial at Pau, van Aert looking very good for the win before crashing out by catching the race barriers. Winning a Tour TT was fitting for the young man, 26-years-of-age and now his fifth stage success at the biggest bike race in the world.
After playing down his expectations because recent surgery for appendicitis, the loss of Primož Roglič was a bitter blow for Jumbo-Visma, but like so many teams, if Plan A goes out the window, let Plan B work its magic! For the Dutch team, while disappointed, a new strategy has worked a treat. Wout van Aert taking two stages, Sepp Kuss in Andorra and 24-year-old Jonas Vingegaard becoming the first Danish rider to secure a Tour podium in 25 years, while disappointed, you have to say it’s actually been a Tour to remember for Jumbo-Visma.
Time trial won, what next for van Aert? Could he sprint for the win in Paris? That would be the ultimate cherry on the top for him personally.
Mark Cavendish makes it to Paris
No matter what happens on the Champs-Élysées it has been a magnificent revival for the career of Mark Cavendish at this year’s Tour. Four stage wins, Cav is now level with Eddy Merckx on 34 Tour de France stages won. Can the Manx Missile break the all-time record? One thing is certain, a second career green jersey is definately his but history can be made in Paris.
After all the highs and lows of Cavendish’s career, many of us were skeptical about Cav in the first place. The Epstein-Barr virus, the mental toll, we all thought the missile was done. He wasn’t done. Four wins at the Tour, Cavendish himself wasn’t expecting to even start the race, to be at the Tour in the first place is an achievement in itself.
We all asked that without a grand tour in his legs for three years, could Mark Cavendish get over the mountains and reach Paris? He has answered those questions and now as Stage 21 is upon us, we are on the cusp of history.
Another British rider who deserves so much praise for getting through the entire three weeks is Chris Froome. We all know the circumstances. A horror crash in 2019, almost career-ending, but Froome now riding for Israel-Start Up Nation, is back on the bike. To see the four-times Tour champion pedaling regardless of his low GC position is a miracle. Humble, willing to give it a go, Froome making Paris after actually crashing on Stage 1 will go down as his toughest challenge to date conquered.
The 108th Tour de France is almost complete. Stage 21 of 21. Paris and the Tour’s final act of drama is upon the riders.
